U.S. Soccer's Evolution: Rothenberg's Impact from 1994 World Cup to 2026

How much progress has U.S. Soccer Federation made since World Cup 1994? No one to better answer that question than Alan Rothenberg.

Before the 2026 World Cup became a $13B global event... Before the U.S. became one of the most important soccer markets on earth... There was Alan Rothenberg.

He wasn’t a star player.
He wasn’t a famous coach.
He wasn’t even a lifelong soccer person.

He was a lawyer and sports executive who understood something most people didn’t in the early 1990s: The World Cup wasn’t just a tournament. It was a launchpad.

Rothenberg helped turn the 1994 World Cup in the United States into one of the most successful sporting events ever staged stateside. The tournament drew more than 3.5 million fans, packed NFL stadiums, and proved that American audiences would show up for global soccer at massive scale.

The surplus from that World Cup helped fund the U.S. Soccer Foundation.
The momentum helped launch Major League Soccer.
The event model helped set the stage for the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
And the commercial blueprint helped create the soccer economy that 2026 is now inheriting.

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